The only reason I saw the movie the Hunger Games is that one of my kids wanted to see it, and I wanted to pre screen it. In a country which has a problem with movies and television which are excessively and gratuitously violent, Hunger Games is in a class by itself. A movie in which children murder children as entertainment? Really? How is this any different in terms of social acceptability from kiddie porn, which is absolutely banned? I’m not saying that any movie should be banned, but I’m not sure why the Hunger Games wasn’t rated NC 17, or whatever they use these days.

And in fact, its interesting that movies of kids killing kids is considered entertainment, but when it happens in the school context, we have to blame the gun.

So lets turn to Goleta, California, the scene of the latest mass killing, and a good one for our analysis for two reasons. First, the killer was as much a “stabber” as he was a shooter, and second because the killer’s father was one of the director’s of the Hunger Games. But that hasn’t stopped the parents of the victims from blaming the gun that was used, although nary a word is being said about knife-control.

For once, and under the circumstance, we really should be looking at the father of the killer, who is clearly tied to creating a culture which glorifies violence. Yes, glorifies violence. The movie is about killing kids, and the incentive for making the movie is profit, and the notion of murder is deemed wildly entertaining. But entertainment does spill out to the real world, and entertainment to one is life lesson to another. We don’t blame Hollywood for these mass killings. Perhaps not–Hollywood is full of liberals who give money to Democrats who call for gun control. Guns are owned by Republicans, right? But this has come home to roost in the home of the murder-for-entertainment industry, and once, just once, I’d like to hear our consoler in chief call put the blame where blame is due.